Juan Sánchez Cotán
Quince, Cabbage, Melon, and Cucumber (ca. 1602)
I am way into this painting by Juan Sánchez Cotán. He was a Spanish Baroque painter, and one of the first realist painters of Spain. When I first saw this painting (in a book, but it is on exhibit at the San Diego Museum of Art if you want to check it out), I first thought it was something much more contemporary. It has this really surreal quality to it that I like, and the composition is really fascinating. It’s hard to believe it was painted around the same time that Cervantes was writing Don Quixote. (Although, I plowed my way through Don Quixote last year, and thought it was hilarious. It was the new, more modern, translation, so that helped. I only got through Book 1 though.)
The painting really reminded me of the space boxes we worked on for Space Analysis class at Pratt, except with vegetables. It makes me really want to create some space boxes with vegetables inside them. That cabbage is really activating the space!
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